Lancelot the Laptop update: So, I called yesterday. (I’d called on Monday, and they told me they were still trying to figure out what was wrong, but since I hadn’t heard a word, I thought I’d try again.) At first the lady who answered gave me the whole “be patient” spiel, but then I said, “Okay, I know you all are swamped, but you told me on Sunday that worst case scenario, it would be back in 7-10 days, and it’s been 5 and it’s not even out yet.” She said, “Wait a minute, you brought it here on Sunday? Please hold.” A minute later she came back. “It’s not the hardware, it’s the software, and we’re working on it now.”
So that was cool. In other news, I asked her if it was the “Apple virus” and she cracked up, saying that not only was it not the Apple virus, because you have to actually download a photo from someone you don’t know through iChat and install it on your harddrive, and I’m not doing that, am I, but also, the virus doesn’t do anything, and stop reading scary articles. (Funny, my agent said the exact same thing to me earlier this week when we were having “shop talk.” I’m clearly a neurotic freak.)
And then she said that she couldn’t stress enough how important it was for me to be backing up my files on something external. And I said, “like .mac accounts?” and she said, “nooooo, because that’s only a gig,” and I said, “oh, like flash drives?” and she said, “noooooo, something much bigger,” and I said, “like what?” and she said, “something bigger,” and at that point, I began to feel less like I was engaging in a commercial conversation with a customer service representative and more like I was playing a game of twenty questions and I asked her straight out what she would recommend. I think they might be prevented from actually recommending a product to me. She said, “like a DVD,” but I said that Lancelot the Laptop (which I did not call that to the Apple employee, what do you take me for?) didn’t actually have a DVD burner on it, and then she made a few more cryptic comments, none of which were actually, “come down to the store and buy this external backup thingy that we sell it’s so great and it’s only $399.99 but it comes with a free iShuffle,” which I think I would have appreciated, since it would have been so much easier than me trying to guess what she was talking around. I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason she couldn’t tell me what she was talking about was because perhaps it was made by The Enemy.
Note: I do not call them The Enemy, mind you. But some Appley people do, and those people probably include the ones that write the behavior manual for employees at Apple Stores.
Anyway, I like the Apple Store people. I want to buy them all a drink. But I can’t, because if I have to pay for this repair and/or buy a new ‘puter, then I will be a connosieur of ramen for several months. I will definitely have to curtail my sushi habit, that’s for damn sure. (It is a habit, by the way. Totally addictive. I get cravings.)
In vaguely related news, I have turned in my proposal for SSG2 to my editor. Yay!
February 24th, 2006 at 10:24 am
Yay on turning in your proposal, girl!! It’ll be awesome!
Shannon
February 24th, 2006 at 10:40 am
Diana, I too share your sushi addiction, something I have to curtail if I want to go to England for two weeks in May. But it’s just so darn good, and NY has amazing sushi places.
February 24th, 2006 at 10:43 am
Hooray on getting the proposal done — and sympathies on the Lancelot the Laptop problems. My ibook Willow developed similar problems last year, and it turned out it was not only the hard drive but the logic board, neither of which cost me anything to fix since it was still covered under Apple Care.
You don’t need to go for a DVD burner — an 80 Gig external Iomega hard drive costs around $90 as places such as Best Buy or Fry’s, which is what I use for backup. In addition, manuscripts are burned weekly onto CDs — works in progress are mailed daily to a Gmail account I have set up for such purposes. It’s a bit extra work, but definitely worth it. (I have extra Gmail invites if you want on — 2.6 gigs of free storage.)
Btw, thanks for the email; I’ve been meaning to respond, but I’ve been laid up for the last week with the creeping crud.
February 24th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Diana, this is OT, but I have a POV question that I explained in my blog. Could you give me an opinion on it?
Thanks
teri
February 24th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Diana as always you crack me up, seriously, “THE ENEMY” made me laugh at my desk enough to cast a wary look from Julie. As for the apple peeps, I too often have that “I just want to buy you a drink feeling.” That is seriously one of the highlights of my day, whether it be in retail, or phone customer service, whatever, when you encounter someone so cool that you just stop and think, “wow you are cool.” You know the conversations where you would like to say it out loud to the person, but then that would be awkward and weird. Yeah.
As for sushi, oh my gosh. Yummy, contemplating lunch right now and wondering why small towns dont have access. (Upon second thought, never mind, I don’t think I would want it if they did.) As for addiction, I think its something in the rice because if I get busy and don’t have it for a abnormally long period of time I’m Ok, but then as soon as I get it, I want it again, and more, like the next day. Weird. Maybe I’ll look into that.
February 24th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
Mmmm…sushi…
I’m glad to hear Lancelot is going to pull through. It’s been awfully quiet around here at night not having my IM buddy around.
And as someone who’s read the FIRST chapter (um, hello…where’s the rest?!) of the SSG2 proposal, let me just say that it’s going to be as fun and interesting as the first!
Marley = )
February 24th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Oh, hope the laptop stuff works out! I have a friend who is forever razzing me about having a PC. He’s a Mac person, and he definitely refers to BG and crew as The Enemy.
Sushi, yum. We have TONS of that here, not too expensive. They have this place called Genki Sushi (maybe they have it on the mainland too?), among others, but at Genki you sit down and the little plates go past you on a conveyer belt. It’s kind of cool. Contrary to popular belief, you can eat CHEAP in Hawaii. It’s the hotel that’ll kill you.
Congrats on the proposal!
February 24th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
EKM, sadly, when I lived in New York, I had not yet converted to the Sushi Sect. I learned to love it in Sarasota, Florida, at this really incredible sushi restaurant where they basically teach you why it’s a big deal. Still waiting for another experience like that one. And England? How cool! I’m wanting to go to Rome, but my schedule is very tight.
Caro, email? Are you sure it was me? Am I losing it? Entirely possible. Strange things happen to me without a computer…
Elaine, we’re on for Sushi then, in ATL. I know exactly what you mean!
Marley, there IS jus the one so far. I’ve been busy doing… well, YOU know what I’ve been doing. And watching ice skating.
So, Lynne, we just all stay with you in Hawaii? I’ve seen the sushi train joints in Australia and NZ, but never here. I bet EKM will tell us they’ve got them in NYC, though.
Okay, now i’m definitely craving…
February 24th, 2006 at 1:05 pm
Sushi on a conveyor . . . thats it, Hawaii, I’m there, that put me over the edge.
February 24th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
Best of luck with the laptop, Diana. I need to collect on the warranty for mine, it’s come down with the flu (its display tends to turn green, probably a loose cable inside).
Don’t believe the zealots when they preach immunity to viruses–MacOS X is popular enough now that the age of innocence is over. The good news is as long as your user isn’t set up as an administrator, a virus’ wrath can often be limited to just your account and not the entire system. The safest route is awareness, rather than fear or a false sense of security (be it through PR or antivirus software).
I definitely recommend the external hard drive route. It’s a great option for inexpensive and reliable storage. Some come with software that performs full automatic backups at the touch of a button.
February 24th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
Crap, no you’re not! I’m calling Deidre and having you tied to your desk.
February 24th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Hey, check it out, it’s James Lupiani! How are you, James? How have you been?
I’m not saying immunity, I’m just saying I didn’t do anything that the virus needed to have done in order to work.
February 24th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
you bought a macintosh????
February 24th, 2006 at 6:30 pm
I’m doing just peachy, Diana Peterfreund. I do keep up with your blog, I just rarely have much to contribute to the topic. It wasn’t my intention to imply you were clueless, I know you can hold your own.
Have I ever mentioned how confused I was before I figured out which person you meant by “Sailor Boy?”
February 24th, 2006 at 6:38 pm
Who’s the Enemy? I’ve never owned a Mac.
February 25th, 2006 at 11:59 am
Rachel, then you are with the Enemy. The Enemy is Microsoft. Well, I don’t think so…I haven’t owned a Mac in years, but I feel absolutely no rivalry.
February 26th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
If I use both PC and Mac, does that make me bilingual, or a double agent?